ALISTAIR MUNRO

THE Inverness Book Festival has reached its final chapter after a 10-year run.

Organisers have decided to scrap the event which has attracted top authors since 2004, including Ali Smith, Ian Rankin and Christopher Brookmyre.

While we would have loved to continue, we have to be realistic and accept that we simply don’t have the resources to commit any more time to the festival

Colin Marr

Bosses at Eden Court Theatre, which has organised and hosted the festival over the last decade, said last year’s was its final event and this year’s would not go ahead.

Eden Court chief executive Colin Marr said: “The past 10 years has seen a real change in the way that the public interact with books and authors.

“Once upon a time it was a really big deal to be able to see your favourite author in person, listen to them discuss their work and have an opportunity to interact with them.

“This has changed in recent years though and people can now access their favourite authors quite easily by contacting them directly on social media or seeing them at one of the many book signings and book store events up and down the country.

“This means that the very best book festivals spend a lot of time and effort constructing fringe events to supplement their main programme.”

He added: “While we would have loved to continue, we have to be realistic and accept that we simply don’t have the resources to commit any more time to the festival in order to keep pace with other brilliant book festivals.”